How Your Business Can Leverage Yelp’s Trend Tracker To Find New Trends

Yelp analyzes its extensive database of consumer reviews and searches to present three to six trending themes each month – previously covering anything from hiking to coffee art to the lead-up to Christmas. Within each theme, it shares data on specific search terms that have increased over the past 12 months.

What separates Yelp’s search data from that of Google or Bing is that Yelp’s Trend Tracker is entirely consumer-centric. It strictly analyzes buyers’ needs and interests and presents them in a way that’s helpful to businesses.

Yelp explains that it analyzes photos, reviews, and other daily consumer interactions, and identifies search trends “by measuring the frequency of the phrases mentioned per million searches on Yelp.”

One of the most useful features of the Trend Tracker is the contextual paragraph underneath the search term trends. This explains the reasons behind the spike and links to Yelp profiles of businesses doing it well.

There are a number of ways the data provided by Yelp’s Trend Tracker can support businesses:

• Identifying trending products: Yelp’s Trend Tracker analyzes ecommerce peak seasons, such as Black Friday, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day, to find the precise interests during those times. This data could be used to find trending products to sell, and also inspire variations and limited edition product lines.
• Amplifying content and marketing strategies: Similarly, trends relating to your products can spark high-engagement content ideas for your blog, social media, and email marketing.
• Expanding local services: Local businesses can use relevant trends to find in-demand services that they may not be offering already. For instance, January 2025 saw increased searches for kid’s food menus and anti-aging cosmetic procedures, which is a good indicator of potential expansion areas for hospitality and cosmetic companies.
• Improving SEO: Trending keywords can be included in your metadata, product pages, and across your wider website to improve your site’s visibility.

Let’s say you own a restaurant and notice that kids’ food menus are trending. If you don’t cater to children, copying this trend won’t be beneficial to your audience. Instead, use Yelp’s Trend Tracker for further context, lean into the pain point, and consider how your business can offer unique value.

When looking at the data, I could see that the trend in kids’ menus spiked because people were budgeting in the new year. Your business could use these insights and take action by offering discounts during quieter times of the day.

When used correctly, Yelp’s Trend Tracker will help you understand what your target audience is interested in so that you can form data-driven business decisions that will encourage engagement and drive sales.

This said, trends are fleeting, so you need to be quick to identify the right trends for your business. I’d recommend signing up for Yelp’s trend newsletter, which provides regular industry insights and search trends straight to your inbox.